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My Thoughts on MLP season 5
So, I get a few questions (at least) every week on my thoughts towards season 5, or a couple of specific episodes. As you may or may not have known I've stepped back from reviewing these for various reasons - namely that I was tiring out on reviewing to the point where I was doing like one review every two weeks. And then there was my interests changing as they're prone to do. But, I thought that I would at least talk about my opinion of each of these episodes. I have seen all of the episodes in season 5, and I'll give my thoughts of the season overall at the end. We'll go episode by episode. Episode 1 & 2: The Cutie Map - I liked this episode, but compared to Twilight's Kingdom, Return of Harmony, A Canterlot Wedding it wasn't really living up to the other two-parters. From the start, I thought that it was a more downplayed two-parter: a simpler adversary, which is fine. I mean getting trapped in a cult is a fearsome thing. Not as fearsome as getting blown to smithereens by an all-powerful demon out of hell, but still. Then I realized why this episode didn't stand as strong as the other two-parters: Starlight is the weakest villain the show ever had. In reality she's just bitter and jealous, which aren't overly threatening characteristics for a villain to have. And here's one thing that I really hate about the "ideologue villain": she's just using it to manipulate people. These villains are at their true potential when they have a bad idea that they truly believe in and spread it to other people. Episode 3: Castle Sweet Castle - This episode is way too similar to Suited for Success. Also, not much happens in it. They make the castle a mess, and then they fix the castle. While Spike and Twilight do something off on the side. Reviewing it, I'd give it three stars. Episode 4: Bloom & Gloom - '''This was a good episode. If there's anything I didn't like about it, it's that the scenarios within it took place during a dream. Then again, I get why they were in a dream. The extreme fears that Applebloom had weren't exactly likely to happen. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo abandoning her, for example, weren't likely to happen. At least as extreme as it did in the dream. '''Episode 5: Tanks for the Memories - Because Tank wants to sleep for a few months, Rainbow Dash decides to completely mess up the ecosystem and doesn't get punished for it. While not the worst episode ever, this was the first of the season I didn't like. Episode 6: Appleoosa's Most Wanted - I didn't like this episode for the same reasons that most other people didn't. It's very confusing in context of the show, and it's really boring. Episode 7: Make New Friends But Keep Discord - I actually really liked this episode, mostly for the message. It's been way too easy for me to feel paranoid about my friends' intentions in real life. Episode 8: The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone -''' A nice, solid episode. It was enjoyable. I don't have much else to say about it though. '''Episode 9: Slice of Life - This episode is absolutely hilarious. Episode 10: Princess Spike - This episode has... a lot of problems. It's like Spike at Your Service. In that episode, Spike was broken and did terrible things to the world. In this episode the world was broken and did terrible things to Spike. Yes Cadence, the best way to let Twilight sleep is to not delegate her duties to anyone or give any sort of announcement to the people that she couldn't do her duties today, and have her sleep next to a construction site. Top notch plan. Episode 11: Party Pooped - This episode was okay. It didn't really stand out very much. Episode 12: Amending Fences - One of the best episodes of the show. Mostly for its story, heart, and message. Episode 13: Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep - Ooh boy... this episode. Pretty much the first episode of the show with real controversy, not like the old #savetreecontroversies. I have other problems with this episode though. It's the fourth dream episode we've had so far. Most shows only have one dream episode because it would get boring and repetitive if you did it all the time. And at the end? It's hard to go "completely crazy" when Slice of Life did that just a few episodes before. As for the actual controversy about self-harm, I don't feel comfortable talking about it here in such a format. Just know that the episode wasn't on good standing with me from the start. Episode 14: Canterlot Boutique - A fairly good episode. I enjoyed it. If I had a problem with this, it seems to disregard the fact that sometimes an artist needs to sacrifice passion and creativity to actually make a good product. What I'm saying is that in the real world, on some level, Rarity's manager has a point. Episode 15: Scare Master - A thoroughly enjoyable episode from start to end. Episode 16: Rarity Investigates - I can say this: this episode really reminded me of Turnabout Storm. So... on the viewing or two I saw this, it's hard to view it objectively. I thought it was good though. Episode 17: Made in Manhattan - This episode was okay. It wasn't the most interesting thing in the world, but it's really brought up by its message. Episode 18: Brotherhooves Social - Oh good, the other controversial episode of the season. What I know is that a lot of other cartoons, shows, and movies have done crossdressing for far worse and more offensive reasons. I didn't sense any malice within the episode. This episode did have a lot of heart, and I like that. Episode 19: Crusaders of the Lost Mark - So, another musical episode. Also, another instant redemption. This episode is okay. I can't say that there's nothing new within it, but we've had characters change physically before (and we were expecting it this time). We've had musicals before. The songs in this are pretty good. But the instant redemptions were really getting stale at this point, considering that everything that Diamond Tiara has done in the past. You can't redeem that in one episode. Episode 20: The One Where Pinkie Knows - I thought it was a really fun episode. Although, it makes me more aware of why the show doesn't write male characters more often. You know how when a male writer doesn't really know how to write women and just makes them overly invested in fashion and makeup and other stereotypes? Yeah, it kind of works the other way too. Episode 21: Hearthbreakers - A nice episode. Although, we've had a similar message earlier in this episode with Party Pooped they kind of, sort of work together. I mean, the first part of this episode shows the risks of following Party Pooped's message. Episode 22: What About Discord - An alright episode. I don't think there was anything too special here though. Episode 23: The Hooffields and the McColts - This episode is... okay. It is the exact same story as every other Hatfields and McCoys ''story. There's nothing wrong with wearing your references on your sleeve - but you should try to take ''some kind of deviation on the initial story. There are these two feuding families. They're feuding over something stupid. It's a morality tale. Episode 24: The Mane Attraction - This episode is my favorite of the season, for reasons that I can't quite articulate. I guess I'm just really into the story and the message and the heart. And most of the songs. I'll say this about the weird electropop thing: it's better than the song from The Show Stoppers. The other songs in this episode are just amazing though. Episode 25 & 26: The Cutie Re-mark - After a lot of deliberation, this is the first two parter that I do not like. It's not like the first one, where one part is good and the other part is a mess. No... this whole thing is just a mess. And this had the potential to be my favorite two parter. I love speculative concepts. I especially love time travel when it's done right. I love alternate universes, bad futures, and all of that. Why don't I like it? Let's go over the reasons. The time travel story where time travel makes sense doesn't have time travel, sure. However, the time travel in this story is bad, even by time travel stories. First of all, Twilight and Starlight keep going back to the same point. If Time Travel worked like it did... everywhere else in the series, there should be a million of them by the end. More importantly though "one small change can lead to vastly different results." But it's the same change, every single time. The same change leads to the same result. In other words: Nightmare Moon should have conquered everyone in every single one of the new branching paths. In the world where Tirek ruled for instance... who stopped Nightmare Moon? Who stopped Discord to the point where he was weak enough to team up with Tirek? Also, isn't it because Twilight had friends that she didn't essentially decapitate Chrystalis when she was posing as Cadence? Twilight's friends held her back in that scenario. Any explanation that could be made for these discrepancies kind of jacks up with either the tension (if other factors at play, just keep going through futures until you get to one where all of the stars align and all of the bad guys are defeated) or the moral... that Twilight and her friends are awesome. That seems to be the message here. Twilight and her friends are awesome. The entire episode seems to just be aggrandizing her and her accomplishments. Chances are... if I'm watching the show called Friendship is Magic, I know that Twilight's friendship is important. And watching for five seasons shows me exactly how important it is... much more than these two episodes. The story... after the first couple of times, it becomes "what contrived reason can I think of to get Twilight away from the map?" And then things happen a little too fast for any of the possibilities (that shouldn't be possibilities) to sink in. It seems that the episodes put big ideas ahead of any kind of plot. And... while big ideas are great... they don't make a good story, or a cohesive product. And then there's Starlight. While she was a typical meh villain in The Cutie Map. Oh boy. This is what made me think she's the worst villain in the show. So... her instant redemption? This story may have gotten to me, if it wasn't almost point-for-point a rehash of Amending Fences. I get it already. Abandoning my friends turns them into grumpy loners and sociopaths. I don't do that. Speaking of which, Starlight is not powerful enough to go toe-to-toe with Twilight. That's essentially the point of her backstory. If she could do that with an alicorn princess, I dunno what she was complaining about. While the episode does plenty of things for Nightmare Moon's characterization, it does nothing for Starlight's characterization. As the episode goes on, she just gets more and more petty. It's a mere revenge plot. Also, it has no endgame, considering that she's not even willing to abandon it when she learns that Equestria goes to hell. I mean... even her mannerisms are boring, when you compare it someone like Trixie. And she gets off entirely scott free, when all we know is that she's lying. After all, she was able to fight with an alicorn princess, but claims she was bitter because she was upstaged in magic by a regular unicorn. --------- Bad Episodes: 6/26 or 5/24 Bottom 5 of Season 5: Number 5: Tanks for the Memories - for an over-reacting, karma Houdini Rainbow Dash Number 4: Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep - for now, let's say not having much of a leg to stand on. Number 3: Appleoosa's Most Wanted - Eehh..... Number 2: Princess Spike - For being incredibly contrived Number 1: The Cutie Re-Mark - For... a lot of reasons And now for my favorite episodes, as in the ones that would have a shot at making my top 30 or something like that: Number 6: Make New Friends but Keep Discord - I kind of really needed the reminder in this episode. It seems kind of childish, but you've got to remember that I'm quite a few years behind on this friendship thing. Number 5: Scare Master - This episode is thoroughly enjoyable. There's not much more to say about it. It's hard to say exactly what I like about it, beyond all of the creative visuals and beyond coherent story. Number 4: Slice of Life - Speaking of coherence.... look, I find this episode hilarious. There's not a moment I don't find entertaining. Number 3: Brotherhooves Social - While not as good as Sisterhooves Social, I really enjoy the sibling interactions in this episode. Number 2: Amending Fences - It seems like everyone, after watching this episode, remembered to call up a friend that they hadn't spoken to in years. It's... a good message, and it's easy to forget about people when your interests turn in a new direction. Number 1: The Mane Attraction - The story really speaks to me, and it helped to remind me... why I'm doing this. All of this. Also, The Magic Inside (I am Just a Pony, is the best song in the show. Might go indepth into this one someday. ---- So... how did this season do... for me personally? It honestly depends on what we're looking at. By my count, there were only five bad episodes, with one or two others... coming close. Other seasons have had less and other seasons have had more. It's not really the bottom I'm looking at though. The reason that I was having such a hard time getting into this season was because of "the greats" as it were. Many more episodes would get five stars than just what I put in my top 6. However, I don't really know if I could make a top ten for this season as it were. I wouldn't know what would come in number 7 because none of the episodes really grabbed me like those 6. I mean... Bloom & Gloom maybe? It has a hard time competing with the two dream episodes we had before that one. The Treasure of the Lost Griffonstone? Sure, but it's hard to imagine watching that episode over and over again. Where would I place this next to the other seasons? It's definitely not as good as season 4, but I think it's better than season 1 (which had a similar number of bad episodes and truly stand-out episodes as well). That being said, my favorite episodes from this season were much better than the worst episodes were bad. I like my top 5 episodes from this season more than my top 5 from seasons 1, 3, or maybe 2. As for the worst - with the exception of The Cutie Re-Mark, which is a special case anyway - they wouldn't make my top 10 least favorite episodes of the show. Not even Princess Spike. However, if I had a criticism, it's that the reuse of ideas and trends became a lot more noticeable in this season. The instant redemptions are not only getting old, they're getting annoying. Especially when it comes to a character like Diamond Tiara who has done a lot of bad through five seasons, and Starlight Glimmer, who could very well be lying. Things like the characters developing (like the Cutie Mark Crusaders getting their cutie marks) aren't surprising anymore. And the show seems to know this. The One Where Pinkie Knows seemed to understand this, not treating a change as a major development. And seriously, stop with the instant redemptions. I'm not opposed to villains getting reformed. I'm opposed to it happening in the 2 minutes at the end of an episode, completely ignoring anything else that they've done. I don't mind that they're reusing a lot of "set pieces" like the holidays, characters, and places. What I do mind are things like Castle Sweet Castle where characters are doing almost exactly what they've done before. And episodes where not only are characters relearning messages, but they're almost exactly the same, like with Party Pooped/Hearthbreakers. Am I going to do reviews on these? I can't say if I'll do episode-by-episode reviews any time soon, but I'm still planning on doing admirables of Amending Fences and now The Mane Attraction. And then there's The Cutie Re-mark... oh boy. The two episodes I consider atrocities are Rainbow Falls and Putting Your Hoof Down (being nonsense and mean-spiritedness respectively). The Cutie Re-mark is much closer related to the former than the latter. Rainbow Falls was more nonsensical, in that it didn't seem to have any branch of logic. But The Cutie Re-mark is longer. I don't know if it's bad enough to call an Animated Atrocity. It will take many watches and much deliberation.... so who knows. Category:Miscellaneous